Discover, Explore and Conserve at Aigas!

The last two weeks have seen the Field Centre filled with students from Hamilton College. Pupils from the college have been visiting Aigas for many years now and enjoy a varied programme which takes them to lots of exciting places all over the Highlands. However we added a small addition to the programme last year and because it was such a success we decided to run with it again this year. The addition was the John Muir Award.

John Muir was born in Dunbar, Scotland in 1838 and at the age of 11 emigrated to America with his family. As a child he developed a passion for the natural world and in America he became known as the ‘founding father’ of the world conservation movement. He pioneered what we know refer to as ecology “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe” (John Muir). Although John Muir himself existed quite a long time ago his message is still relevant today - that we should all take the time to experience, enjoy and care for wild places.

The John Muir Award is an environmental award scheme focused on wild places. It stemmed from the John Muir Trust and was launched in 1997 as its main educational initiative. It encourages awareness and responsibility for the natural environment, in a spirit of fun, adventure and exploration. To achieve the award you must tackle four challenges centred around your wild place; discover, explore, conserve and share. The students from Hamilton were challenged with discovering not just one wild place but lots of different places in and around the Inverness-Shire area! From the rock pools at Rosemarkie beach to the ancient Caledonian Pine Woods of Glen Affric, the students we discovering and exploring lots of different habitats and wild places.

For the conserve challenge the Hamilton pupils were set the task of becoming familiar with all the different ways that Aigas is eco-friendly. They were then to help us maintain our eco-friendly ethos for the duration of their stay. This involved a lot of reducing, reusing and recycling! The three R’s that we all know so well. The pupils also learned a bit about environmentally friendly building, food miles, composting, the outdoor access code and carbon footprints.

The final part of the award will take place back at school. The share challenge encourages pupils to tell others about their experiences had whilst carrying out  the award. Last years pupils did a talk to other school mates and parents about what they learned through the award and what new experiences they had. I am sure this years pupils will also manage to complete the share challenge to then receive their certificates in a few weeks time. We hope that all the pupils enjoyed their visit up to Aigas this year and we look forward to welcoming Hamilton back next year.
 

For anyone interested in learning more about John Muir or taking part in the award then please visit the website www.johnmuiraward.org to find out more.  

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

Our local raven chicks have now fledged the nest!  Yesterday, it looked as though they were ready to fledge at any moment and today two of the four chicks had fledged!  One of the fledglings had not gone far as we found it perched on the cliff below the nest, whereas the other fledgling could not be seen, so it must have gone slightly further afield.  The two remaining chicks looked quite happy sunning themselves on the nest and eventually they settled down to sleep.  It will not be long before they join their siblings away from the nest.

Once ravens fledge they will not disperse straight away, they will spend the next few months around the nest site as they are still dependent on their parents for food.  The adults will eventually chase the youngsters off once they are able to fend for themselves.

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

We have some good news here at Aigas, last Thursday our new wildcat pair had kittens!! Scott and Sarah were the first rangers to discover the kittens when they went to feed the cats on Thursday evening.  They could hear tiny squeaks coming from one of the nest boxes and as the cats are usually silent this could mean only one thing – kittens! 

We have not seen the kittens yet, because the mother has them safely tucked away in her nest box.  They are born blind and are helpless, but their eyes will start to open after seven to twelve days and within ten to twelve weeks they will start to venture out of the nest box of their own accord.  We wait with bated breath to see the kittens!

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

Today on a walk around Glen Affric with a group of Hamilton school children the rangers heard their first cuckoo of the season!  This was a great start to our 12 mile walk, which all the children completed.  They should all be very proud of themselves.  We look forward to hearing more cuckoos throughout the week. 

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

On Easter Sunday the Field Centre was buzzing with excitement as we were due some new arrivals, no it was not the Easter bunny!  We were set to receive some more wildcats! These cats are to supplement our wildcat breeding programme, which we initiated in early 2011.  We originally started with a pair of wildcats and these cats settled in well, but despite many mating attempts they did not breed last year or this year.  We do not know why they have not bred, but this year we decided to revamp our wildcat project.  We now have a new pair of wildcats along with a new male.  The new male has been paired up with our original female.  These new cats have come from a captive breeding programme and they are proven breeders, so we wait with baited breath to see if any kittens will be born this year.

There are many organisations involved with wildcat conservation including the captive breeding programme.  At Aigas we started our own wildcat breeding project in order to assist with wildcat conservation.  It is thought that there are between 400-1,000 Scottish Wildcats left in the wild, making this a very rare animal.  It is through habitat loss, persecution and hybridisation with domestic cats that has caused the wildcat population to become threatened. There are many different programmes working towards the conservation of wildcats and our aim is to assist with this by breeding and releasing Scottish Wildcats back into the wild.

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

The Spring Birds programme has again been a great success, with an astonishing variety of bird species ensuring we saw over 100 species in a week! Highlights had to include our first Ring Ouzel of the year in a local strath, the stunning dance and call of the Black Grouse in their lek display, plus rare and shy birds such as the Capercaillie and Snow Bunting. With birds in full song, we clocked our first Willow Warbler, and admired the gorgeous plumage of the Slavonian Grebe that breed in only a small area of the British Isles which happens to be right on our doorstep!

We had many fabulous views of Osprey, the full hat-rick of divers - Black-throated, Red-throated and Great-northern in a variety of breeding and non-breeding plumages, plus Iceland Gull and Twite! This is such a great time to see the variety of birds that Scotland can boast because we still have some winter migrants here as well as the summer migrants returning. Final mention has to go to the massive rafts of Long-tailed Duck and Common Scoter still around our coasts, and we even had a rare glimpse of a drake Surf Scoter - a new bird for me as well as our guests!

Elspeth

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

Last week our Aigas Wildlife group spent a day exploring the grounds at Aigas and some local sites.  During the day we took a closer look at some of the invertebrate life in the loch followed by walks  to our Iron Age Fort and surrounding woodlands.  Throughout the day we had some amazing wildlife encounters starting with finding three Slow Worms underneath our reptile refugia and discovering an Osprey perched in a tree overlooking the loch.  This was followed by a visit to our local peregrine and raven spot, where we had a great view of a male peregrine and we also discovered that the Ravens now have four chicks!  The chicks appear to be doing very well and their calls echoed around us whilst their parents fed them.  

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

This week Aigas has opened its doors to a fresh new season and our first guests, a
group of regulars, St Osmunds Middle School from Dorset. St Osmunds have been
bringing groups to Aigas for over 20 years now and every year we look forward to
their arrival. However Tuesday morning hit us with a bit of a surprise… over a foot of
snow had fallen during the night! All plans for exploring the beautiful Glen Affric had
to be put aside due to transport issues and plan B had to be determined.

So we spent the morning making wildlife sculptures in the afresh fallen snow and
walking around the newly transformed winter wonderland Aigas. By the afternoon
the roads were cleared and we were able to reach Urquhart castle for an afternoon
of exploring the castle. On return to Aigas we learned that the power was still out but
not to fear, we would still get our well-deserved Aigas dinner!

Dinner was followed by a traditional story telling ceilidh by candlelight in the big
house. Everyone really got into it and the atmosphere was magical! We were even
treated to a special reading of the ‘Bagpipes that didn’t say no’ by Sir John which
everyone really enjoyed. There were so many wonderful contributions so well done
to all for taking part. Here is a poem from one of the groups about the Loch Ness
Monster…

Oh Nessie, oh Nessie
Why so stressy
Why do you always hide?
You live in loch ness
And your cave is a mess
Why won’t you let us inside?

Oh Nessie, oh Nessie
Why so stressy
Why don’t you come out at night?
It’s never that cold
You need to be bold
So give us a lovely delight!

After such an enjoyable evening we are considering having the power turned off
more often!

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

Some of you will have heard about the hill fire that took place in the Aigas area over the past 48 hours. The Field Centre property has been largely unaffected by the fire, although it did reach the outer limits of our moorland.

Our guests and operations are entirely unaffected, so there is no need for concern. We thank you for the various messages of support and concern that we're received from friends and previous guests.

Our staff have been absolute super-stars over the past two days, helping fight fire on neighbouring land, providing sustenance to fire crews, coordinating the response, and remaining pro-active and cheerful throughout, despite very little sleep and a lot of arduous work.

From an ecological point of view, fire is, of course, an entirely natural and important process. We will be watching and monitoring carefully how this event effects the ecology of the area. These events are very rare in the Highlands, so this is a fascinating opportunity to observe the fire's long term effects.

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website

Last night we had our first beaver hide watch of the year.  This was an opportunity for the new rangers, Dave, Duncan, Kate and Scott to become familiar with hide visits before they start to lead them during the season.  Now that the clocks have gone forwards and there is increased daylight each evening it is an ideal time to watch some of our more nocturnal animals – the beavers. 

During our hide visit we had a lovely sighting of one of last year’s kits.  It emerged from the second lodge and swam across the loch; it eventually slowed down as it approached the bank of the loch in order to scan its surroundings.  Once it had decided that it was safe, the kit emerged onto the bank, but unfortunately it had not seen the three mallards in hot pursuit behind it.  The mallards emerged onto the bank and with this the kit slipped back into the water.  The kit then made a second attempt to emerge onto the bank.  This time it was more successful and by this point the mallards appeared to be much more comfortable with the beaver.  When the kit was settled on the bank we got a great view of it grooming and eating.  This was a great start to watching the beavers and we hope to see the rest of the Aigas beaver family in the up and coming weeks.

This feed was drawn from the Aigas website